Is there such a thing?  To a reasonable, well informed person there are no ”perfectly constructed” homes.  To the unreasonable, misinformed person, the term causes a big headache in our industry.

Let’s elaborate on the term “reasonable”.  Is it reasonable in a newly constructed home to expect there to be no drywall cracks throughout the walls?  Yes.  To expect that the doors don’t hit the frame when closing?  Indeed.  To expect that the wood flooring isn’t missing boards?  Absolutely.

Now, is it unreasonable to expect the garage floor slab to not have any hairline cracks?  Yes.  To expect that there won’t be a 1/16 inch gap between the baseboard and drywall?  Indeed.  To expect that there won’t be any wood putty filling the nail holes in the trim?  Absolutely.

Of course, there are many, many different styles of homes with different materials used by different trade contractors.  However, the expectation of workmanship should stay consistent across the field.

New home construction is one of the last, truly man made products.  For this reason, we should, and I must say most people do, expect that there is a certain margin of error in construction or what we consider “tolerances”.

What we ask of everyone is to study up on these tolerances so that you can have a proper expectation for your “walk through”.  Would we expect you to read it front to back and memorize every acceptable tolerance?  Of course not.  However, speaking from experience, there are still people out there expecting perfection in construction and a preliminary education prior to the “walk through” can help to produce a more seamless transaction for all parties involved.

A great resource for this information is the “Residential Construction Performance Guidelines” written by the NAHB Remodelors Councel and Business Management.

I’m sure a good 90% or more of us have lost files on our computers due to a hard drive crash or by accident.  I recently found a really cool program/online account that will eliminate the fear of losing files again.

Everyone has probably heard of online storage sites.  Well, this is an online storage site but it’s also a syncing site.  Not only are you backing up your files, but your files are synced in real time as well.

This works perfectly for syncing computers within your home or if you have partners/employees that are remotely working from a different office or from home.

Simply set up a folder/multiple folders on your computer to be “synced” and whatever changes happen within that folder (moving, adding, deleting, changing files) are automatically updated on every computer that’s synced.  All of this happens instantly!  It’s really an amazing setup.

I tested it out with two laptops side by side that I “synced”.  I drug a file into my “synced” folder on laptop 1 and it immediately showed up in the “synced” folder on laptop 2.  I deleted the file and it immediately disappeared.  It works perfectly for my business because I have employees that work in the field and rarely come to the office.  We always need to share files and pictures which can be close to impossible through email with large files.

It’s called SugarSync.  They have free accounts that have 2 gigabytes of storage and it’s only $4.99/month for 30 gigabytes of storage.  Check it out.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.

Name of Product: Kidde Model PI2000 Dual Sensor Smoke Alarms

Units: About 94,000

Manufacturer: Walter Kidde Portable Equipment Inc., of Mebane, N.C.

Hazard: An electrostatic discharge can damage the unit, causing it not to warn consumers of a fire.

Incidents/Injuries: The firm has received two reported incidents of smoke alarm malfunctions involving electrostatic discharge during installation. No injuries have been reported.

Description: This recall involves Kidde dual sensor smoke alarms model PI2000. The alarms can be identified by two buttons, “HUSH” and “PUSH AND HOLD TO TEST WEEKLY,” which are located on the front/center of the alarm. The model number and date code are on the back of the smoke alarm. Only date codes 2008 Aug.01 through 2009 May 04 are included in this recall.

Sold at: Retail, department, and hardware stores and through electrical distributors nationwide from August 2008 through May 2009 for between $30 and $40.

Manufactured in: China

Remedy: Consumers should contact Kidde immediately to receive a free replacement smoke alarm.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Kidde toll-free at (877) 524-2086 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, or visit the firm’s Web site at www.kidde.com

As some of you may know, the House of Representatives passed the new home warranty bill, HB 1393, a couple months ago.  This bill was aiming to require all builders in Washington State to back their homes with a new home warranty.  It didn’t end up being passed through the Senate but came pretty close.

I’m sure we will see another similar bill being pushed in the near future.  Should a builder warranty be required by law?

The Washington State Energy Code (WSEC) needs changing…..says Governor Gregoire. Gregoire created the Climate Advisory Team (CAT) in February of 2007 and they went on to create a report in 2008 recommending to “revise the Washington State Energy Code to achieve a 30 percent reduction in new building energy use”. In addition, the report recommends “substantial efficiency advances in the code as it applies to remodeling, retrofit and equipment replacements”.

Some of the changes being considered include: heightened restrictions on window U-factors, roof insulation, and an assorted combination of requirements mandating high efficiency HVAC equipment, such as, restrictive building envelope options, air leakage control, and efficient water heater provisions.

Should Washington State be implementing such costly, heavy handed changes in the WSEC during such difficult economic times? Would planned, incremental changes be a better solution?